50D, 300 F4L IS + 1.4 TC, ISO 500, F5.6, 1/100, on monopod. Conditions overcast, 45 minutes before sunset.
Probably not the best perch and would have liked more room at the head and tail, sides cropped about 15%. Not sure about colours.
Art, love the BG, makes the bird really show off nicely. I agree with your self critiques. Should be fairly easy for you to add some canvas top and bottom with the solid color of the BG. Also maybe try to lighten around the eye to bring out a little more detail there. Very nice overall.
Interesting bird. Have you run a NR over the bird, you seem to have lost some feather detail?
I agree with you that it is a bit tight above the head, why dont you try and add a bit of canvas above.
I like the vertical frame, Art, agree that adding a little canvas on top would help. There appears to be a greenish cast - yellowish underfeathers are too green for a cedar WW. Head and breast feathers seem a little soft. Nice catchlight!
Nice alert pose you got Art. I agree with your self critique for more room above and below - should be easy to add canvas with such smooth BG. Waxwings have a notorioulsy silky-looking plumage that often seems lacking in fine detail even without NR applies to it. A for your colour question...The WB is rather "cool"...warming it up by adding yellow (reducing blue) and a bit of red (reducing cyan) in "Color balance" should do the trick.
Hi Art, Daniel is a tuff act to follow. He is nailing all of these critiques. My first thought was how this looks a bit like a film scan, probably due to the contrast, which I don't understand based on your listed shooting information, unless added in processing. Could go brighter on the mids for my tastes. Nice background and pretty good detail on the bird (hard to achieve on this species sometimes).